The crucial battle on carbon emissions targets for agriculture has kicked off.

Senior officials from the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment Climate and Communications held preliminary discussions on the matter this week.

The negotiations are seeking to agree an actual emissions ceiling for agriculture, which is to be achieved between now and 2030. Any package will have to be approved by cabinet.

A 22% to 30% range was agreed for the farm sector earlier in this process. However, a specific target has now to be set for agriculture for the remainder of the decade under climate change legislation.

Sources close to Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue insisted that farming can deliver a 22% reduction in emissions, but that the minister will be “pushing hard” to hold the line as close to the lower end of the range as possible.

The farm sector’s baseline carbon equivalent emissions is 22m tonnes

However, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, has maintained that each sector will have to deliver the upper end of its range for the country to reach its national target of a 51% reduction in emissions by 2030.

Last week, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar insisted that no farmer was “going to be told to stop farming, or to reduce the number of cattle or animals they have” in order to meet climate change targets.

The farm sector’s baseline carbon equivalent emissions is 22m tonnes. A 22% reduction in emissions requires a cut of 5m tonnes, while a 30% reduction equates to a cut of 6.6m tonnes.

Clickhere for Tánaiste Leo Varadkar's views on agriculture's emissions reduction targets.